Home
by shiiki
Summary: After the Battle of the Giants, there is one last promise for Percy to keep. Christmas giftic for CupcakeQueen816.


**Summary:** After the Battle of the Giants, there is one last promise for Percy to keep. For **CupcakeQueen816** , who requested Percy/Annabeth with the prompt: _immediately after battle with Gaea, trying to find each other and maybe agree to go to Percy's mom._

 **A/N** : Dear CupcakeQueen816, I was so thrilled to write this for you! Your wonderful reviews every chapter—first on the DoW stories and then CoL—have made it such a joy to share my stories with you. Thank you so much for your continued support. I hope you enjoy this little Christmas gift!

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

 **Home**

 _A Christmas giftfic for_ _ **CupcakeQueen816**_

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The explosion was blinding.

For one heart-stopping minute, the world was nothing but deafening light and blazing sound.

Somewhere in the back of Percy's head, he registered that they must have won, but he'd been through enough battles by now to know that winning always came at a price. And right now, he was terrified to discover what they might have paid this time.

He scanned the battlefield frantically, searching for the one person he needed to find, the one he'd always look for first at the end of a fight, who _had_ to be alive even if the world was ending …

She flung her arms around him from behind, knocking his helmet askew, but Percy didn't care. He tossed it aside and turned to bury his face in Annabeth's hair.

'You're okay.'

In response, Annabeth kissed him.

The tight fist in Percy's stomach started slowly to unclench. Gripping Annabeth's hand tightly, he turned back to the battlefield. The world came back into focus: a pile of monster ash disintegrating at his feet—the giant he'd just run Riptide through moments before. Monsters falling left and right across the hills of Long Island. Gaia's army fleeing in a panic, their general incinerated in the spectacular aerial supernova that only Leo Valdez could possibly have dreamt up.

But they left behind a valley of devastation. There were too many bodies—Greek and Roman, it didn't matter any more. The other side wasn't the enemy.

To Percy's relief, he spotted his friends moving amidst the carnage. Tyson lumbered over the crest of a hill. Grover was under the shade of a cedar tree with his reed pipes raised to his lips. Frank and Hazel stood back-to-back as though still expecting another wave of monsters. Nico crouched next to the Roman line of onagers, staring transfixed at the sky.

Above them, two tiny forms spiralled toward the earth.

Hearts in their mouths, they all ran to meet their falling friends. But the giant Roman eagles that swooped in to intercept them landed with only Jason and Piper in their claws. The moment Piper looked up, eyes sparkling with tears, they all knew.

It wasn't his first funeral pyre. (Technically, that had been his own, but did it really count if you crashed your own funeral?) Percy would always remember the night after the Battle of the Labyrinth, two years ago, the first time he'd helped wrap the bodies of his friends in their burial shrouds. It never really got any easier to say goodbye.

Nico led the burial rites, backed up by Hazel. Percy and Annabeth mouthed the words of the ancient blessings for the dead along with them. There weren't as many casualties as there might have been, but each one was still a sharp stab to Percy's gut. Mingled with his relief that his closest friends hadn't died was the piercing guilt that someone he didn't know had died instead. Another demigod who was _someone's_ someone.

And then they came to the final two shrouds—the ones with no bodies to cremate. Nico's voice faltered over Octavian's shroud and Hazel had to take over the blessing. Reyna delivered the augur's eulogy in a stiff, emotionless voice. It wasn't a heart-warming speech by any means, but Percy got the feeling that Octavian would have preferred it that way—heavy on honour and light on sentimentality.

Jason and Piper bore Leo's shroud to the pyre, flanked by the crew of the Argo and the entire Hephaestus cabin. Annabeth's hand was painfully tight around Percy's as they watched the copper shroud, with a dragon embroidered in bronze thread, curl up in the flames. It was an ironic reminder of the explosion that had swallowed both boy and dragon.

Annabeth shuddered. The nails of her free hand dug into her forearm, leaving little red marks. Percy took her hand gently and pulled it away.

'Hey. It's gonna be okay,' he murmured.

Annabeth sighed. 'No, it's just—the shrouds. It's giving me a really bad flashback.'

'The Battle of the Labyrinth?'

Annabeth shook her head. ' _Your_ funeral, Seaweed Brain. Do you know what that was like, burning your empty shroud, imagining you were dead?'

Percy winced. 'Really bad?'

'I'm tired of this, Percy. Losing people. Losing _you._ '

'Hey, I'm here. And maybe Leo will pull a me and turn up after two weeks. And then you can yell at him for getting stuck on a desert island … though if he ended up where I did, I'm guessing he'd probably just stay.'

Annabeth punched his arm. 'You're impossible.' A watery laugh bubbled up from her throat. 'You're just like your mom. She was the only one who agreed with me that you weren't dead.'

'My mom.' Percy ran his fingers through his hair. 'Oh gods, I need to let her know I'm okay. I never got the chance to—besides that message I left her … crap, that was almost two months ago now.'

'"I'm alive, I'll make it home, I promise,"' Annabeth quoted.

'You heard it?'

'Yeah.' Annabeth made little circles on the inside of his palm. 'It was a long six months. We had to share all the news we could. So when you called and left your message—your timing sucks, by the way; we were both at her—um. We were both out.'

'Out?'

'Spending time together,' Annabeth said quickly. Too quickly. There was somethings he wasn't telling him, something she'd managed to keep hidden all this time. Percy's stomach did a slow flip. He wasn't sure he could take any more crappy news.

'Annabeth—'

'We already knew you weren't dead. And you'd be back. It was just like the time with Mount St Helens. She knew you'd come back even without you telling her. But it was nice to hear your voice all the same.'

'Is she okay? What were you guys doing when you missed the call? Why haven't you told—'

'Percy, it's fine. She's fine. Trust me, nothing's wrong. You'll see—we'll go and find her soon. Once stuff is cleaned up here, we'll go home.'

'Home,' Percy echoed. And then—'You said "we."'

'Yeah. It's—I feel like it's kind of my home, too.' Annabeth blushed and hugged herself, as though nervous about what he would think about it.

Percy put his arms around her. 'I love that you think so.'

It was several days before things settled down enough on Half-Blood Hill for them to leave. There was clean-up to be done, repairs to be made, and their Roman friends to see off, but at last, the Roman convoys were on their way across the country and Percy and Annabeth were standing outside the door of his mom's apartment on the Upper East Side.

His home.

Which he hadn't seen for nearly eight months.

And she was there, his beautiful mother, a smile of relief breaking across her tired face. Before he could choke out an apology, she had folded Percy into her arms. Her embrace was firm and warm, and she smelt of cookies and comfort. Every time she held him like this, it was like he was twelve again. Despite all the years, all the quests, coming home never changed.

Except …

The shape of her felt different. Rounder. And when his mom released him to pull Annabeth into a hug as well, he saw it—the little bump sticking out from her belly. It was only just noticeable, but he was pretty sure he knew what it meant.

His eyes widened. 'Mom, you're—'

His mom blushed. 'Yeah. I …' She glanced at Annabeth. 'You didn't tell him?'

'It was your news. And I didn't want him to worry.'

'I'm sorry, Percy,' his mom said. 'I know this must come as a surprise, and—'

Percy shook his head in disbelief. 'Mom, I put you through hell _again_ for eight months and _you're_ saying sorry?'

His mother raised her hand to his cheek. 'Oh, honey. I know none of it was your fault. And I know you two must have had a hard journey. But you're alive and safe just like you promised.'

Percy exchanged a look with Annabeth. Maybe they'd tell his mom about Tartarus someday, but now wasn't the time.

'And I'm home,' he said.

His mom held her hand out to Annabeth, drawing them both into a three-way hug. 'You both are.'

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

 **A/N** : A note on the timeline—I'm working off the timing of events in HoO rather than any of RR's comments on how long Percy was MIA (none of which makes logical sense even if it didn't change every other chapter even within SoN!) I'm taking it as Percy went missing in December (at the start of winter break and TLH), and SoN took place in the week ending June 24, which is about when he made the call home, and BoO takes place at the beginning of August. Sally is seven months pregnant by January. And Google now thinks I'm expecting after all my searches on _when does a pregnancy start to show_ and _when would you know you're pregnant_? Lol, writer problems.

Anyway, hope you liked this, **CupcakeQueen816**! And thank you once again for the lovely review you left on the epilogue of CoL. I'm so glad you liked it. Plus you always pick up on some of my favourite bits from when I was writing, which makes me go **SQUEEEEE SHE NOTICED!** Yes we call it Boxing Day over here. :)

The next giftfic will be for **BooksAndHotChocolate**!


End file.
